A Beast's Confession

Five Dead Friends

"Miss Piper?" The officer asked impatiently, tapping his foot against the sidewalk, pen poised and prepared to jot down notes. "Are you ready to begin?" He raised a grey eyebrow at me, his expression stern and curt. Not sympathetic, unfortunately.

I nodded slowly, my eyes wide and terrified, my fingers trembling and my arms wrapped tightly around myself in a hug. Staring at the ground, my eyesight becoming blurry with tears, I took a deep breath and opened my quivering lips for the first time since dialling 911. "I-I had them s-sleeping over... A-and..." I trailed off, glancing at the body bags riding on gurneys into the back of an ambulance, red stains seeping through the beige fabric, painting misshapen poppies across their abdomen. I was so optimistic before it happened, brimming with color, hope and promise, love. Now, I just ached like a sore toe. "When... When I woke up they w-were all g-gone... I as-sumed that they were p-pulling a prank on me..." I shivered, a brand new gust of emptiness forming in my chest, my body feeling like it was being hollowed out. Void of all joy, of laughter, of smiles. I had been reduced to this. "So I decided... I decided I should j-just go get dressed l-like normal... So when I opened my wardrobe..." The image flashed before my eyes once again, their bodies twisted and gorey, stuffed into the wardrobe and falling out onto me, crushing me, the scent of death filling my nostrils. I choked on it, and crawled out from underneath the massive pile of five dead friends, scrambling for the phone. The morbid scene haunted my waking memory, stinging at my brain from the back of my eyeballs. "They were in it," I snapped quickly, battling the sobs swelling inside me with every rapid rise and fall of my chest.

"And the bedroom was clean?" He inquired, scribbling down notes onto his little pad. His face was withered and broken, but I could see the creases at the corners of his eyes. Smile lines; He was happy once, maybe he could be again. No, stop it, Peggy... I scolded myself, biting my lip and trying not to analyze him. You can't smile if they're not here. You can't think of anybody but them.

I nodded again, small tears escaping my icy blue eyes and running in small streams down my face. Memories swarmed around in my buzzing skull, memories of Riley, Fae, April, Renee, Talia... Oh how I would miss them. "There was nothing there, no blood, the scent mas masked, the sleeping bags were made... I just don't understand how I s-slept through it..."

The FBI agent simply nodded and frowned, his wrinkles and creases furrowing as he narrowed his eyes. He seemed annoyed with me for not having the answers he wanted, something that bothered me intensely. Not only had I just seen my best friend's corpses stuffed into my own cupboard, I was temporarily buried by their bodies. The least this cranky investigator could do was cut me some slack.

He sighed deeply and flipped his notepad closed, clicking his pen and neatly folding the two objects into the inside pocket of his coat. "Thank you, miss Piper, I can assure that we will do our best in the bureau to find out what happened last night," he stated impatiently, an almost aggressive scowl worn on his thin, dry lips.

"It's just..." I hesitated, biting my lip and hiding behind my bleach blonde hair, the pink streaked part draped over my face like a half-mask. Just like Fae would always do... I quickly dispelled the thought of her and the others from my mind and continued speaking. "It's just Peggy, sir..."

His frown lessened, his face shifting ever so slightly from agitated to melancholy. He blinked slowly, exhaling deeply through his nose and looking down at the sidewalk, or at his shiny black shoes. When his gaze met mine again, his eyes were red and glassy, a sad grimace causing his saggy face to shake slightly. "Peggy..." he murmured softly, his voice much less harsh than before. Now it just sounded sad. "I'm sorry that this had to happen to you."

Confused, I looked up at him, tiny drops of tears sliding slowly down my soft, pale cheeks. He... cares? "Just... do whatever you can, Mr...?" I paused looking up at his sad face, a terrible past etched into every wrinkle and crease.

"Donati," He responded quickly, staring into my icy blue eyes, opened wide in fear and trauma. "Carmen Donati." Sighing deeply once again, he tucked his fingers in his front pockets, staring down at my tortured expression with sympathy. "Now, Peggy... They're going to want to pull you in for questioning. They're going to tear out every detail you know and... You're going to be considered a suspect..." Pursing his lips, he glanced around the crime scene, my Aunt and Uncle's house fenced off with yellow tape, police officers and FBI agents swarming around, interrogating neighbors and bystanders. "You just need to be prepared for that." Refusing to look me in the eye, he nodded in my direction, stalking off back to his car and slamming the door behind him.

I stood in shock, my soul crippled by the immense weight of death. My thoughts strayed back to Rylie, my best friend. The sporty girl who would always look out for us in our tightly-knit group, Fae especially. And Fae... the beautiful shy girl who was always kind even when we didn't always deserve it. Talia, the bookish girl afraid of opening up anything but a novel, especially to her feelings. Renee was seemingly selfish and a snob but she was so giving, so generous, so caring. And April... she was my rock. She was everybody's rock, the one who stood solid even when nobody else could, who helped us stand, who helped us breathe every day because she was just so good at keeping it together. How could anybody think that I killed them? I could feel a tight knot forming in my chest, and the nerves would not stop expanding, invading my rational thought. I... I never said goodbye...

I collapsed on the sidewalk, gravel digging into my skin like tiny daggers, but I didn't care. Every shred of emotion I had been holding back all morning was behind a dam, and the dam had broken, the smooth wet stone shattering under the pressure. A deluge of sadness laid waste to my mind as I sprawled out on the ground, hugging my knees to my chest, moans and howls erupting from my throat and into the air. Tears flowed like the river nile down my face, so many that I could hardly see through my own eyes. I screamed and screamed until my chest burned, the fire seeping into my entire body, the ache spreading and my heartbeat thundering so loudly in my ears I could hardly hear my own vocal agony.